Solar Slab is one of the best moderate climbs in the U.S. In combination with routes below, it offers 1,500 feet of climbing, with sunny and warm weather even in winter. It follows the obvious system of cracks and flakes up the middle of the huge white slab, and the climbing is predominantly face climbing with finger and hand cracks for protection.

FA: Joe Herbst, Tom Kaufmann, Larry Hamilton, 1/75.
This was truly the A-team of early Red Rocks climbing. Joe Herbst, with either Larry or Tom as his partner, was responsible for the ascents of the Big three walls of Red Rocks (Velvet Wall, Rainbow Wall, and Aeolian Wall). The dramatically blank appearance of the Solar Slab hides the fact that the climbing is surprisingly easy. The first ascent of the 1,500-foot wall took this well-polished party a mere 6 hours. They made it back to the base with sunshine to spare on a short January day.

Later that spring, the well-traveled Fred Beckey showed up in Las Vegas in his endless quest for new routes. Spying this piece of rock, he attacked it as a big wall project, and spent two days completing an early repeat of the route. Unaware that it had seen a prior ascent, he submitted the climb to the American Alpine Journal with the name “Solar Plexus.”
– Larry DeAngelo

Strategy

The biggest problem with a c... [full history for SuperTopo members only!]

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